Smuggling Daming

"Dong dong dong~" Zhou Zhong stepped forward and knocked lightly on the door of Zheng Jing's study.

"What's the matter?" Zheng Jing's familiar voice came from inside.

Hearing this, Zhou Zhong looked at Li Zheng and Zhang Kuang beside him, took a long breath and said, "Brother Ming Lun, Zhou Zhong is here to visit!"

Hearing Zhou Zhong's voice, Zheng Jing inside was also silent for a moment, followed by the sound of footsteps, and then the door was opened, revealing the indifferent Zheng Jing inside, who first nodded to Li Zheng and Zhang Kuang. He nodded his head as a greeting, and then said to Zhou Zhong: "Mr. Zhou is not at home preparing for the wedding, why come to Zheng when you have time?"

Hearing that Zheng Jing's address to him had changed, and he didn't even intend to invite him in, Zhou Zhong couldn't help but smiled wryly and said, "Brother Minglun, I know you have some opinions on what I did in Shuangyu. But as a friend, I think it is necessary for me to come to you to explain, and the Alchemist and the Shrike are also very supportive of this, I wonder if Brother Minglun wants to hear it?"

"Brother Minglun, like you, I also have opinions on Wenda's actions, but we have known Wenda for many years and know each other's temperament very well, so I believe Wenda must have his own difficulties!" At this time Zhang Kuang also spoke.

"This..." When Zheng Jing heard this, the cold expression on his face couldn't help but relax a bit. He stood in front of the door and thought for a while, and finally turned around and said to Zhou Zhong, "Okay, since Mr. Zhou wants to explain, Then we will listen carefully and see why you have massacred hundreds of people as soon as you arrived at Shuangyu Port, and even now you have the title of 'Master Miemen'?"

Seeing that Zheng Jing was finally willing to listen to his explanation, both Zhou Zhong and Li Zheng couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.When they entered Zheng Jing's study, they each found a chair and sat down. Then Zheng Jing, Zhang Kuang, and Li Zhengsan all focused their attention on Zhou Zhong.

I saw Zhou Zhong sitting there thinking for a while, then suddenly raised his head and said: "Everyone, I think you have all heard about my work in Shuangyu Port, and Brother Minglun and Brother Fang Shi are not very satisfied with some of my actions. , now I would like to ask the two of you to tell me, what is your dissatisfaction with me the most?"

Hearing Zhou Zhong's question, Zheng Jing first stood up and said: "I have discussed it with Fang Shixiong before. The rest is nothing, but Zhou Gongzi, you have only been in Shuangyu Port for a few days, and you have slaughtered two Chamber of Commerce, that’s hundreds of lives, and you even cut off the heads of a few people with your own hands. Although they have committed a heinous crime of human trafficking, they only need to kill the culprit. Why do you want to kill all the top and bottom of the two chambers of commerce? Mr. Zhou, don’t you think you are too cruel? Have you forgotten all the righteousness of the sage?”

When Zheng Jing spoke to the end, he also became very emotional. He has always valued Zhou Zhong very much, thinking that he is among his own group of people.Zhou Zhong is the one most likely to succeed, but as the saying goes, the greater the hope, the greater the disappointment.Now Zhou Zhong's actions made him extremely disappointed, and he even felt heartbroken.

However, after hearing Zheng Jing's accusation, Zhou Zhong smiled slightly and said: "Brother Minglun, it seems that you also admit that those people I killed were guilty, but you think my actions are too cruel and violate the benevolence and righteousness of a saint. The way, but I want to ask a question. If I talk about benevolence and righteousness with those Japanese and Koreans, will they also talk about benevolence and righteousness with me?"

"This..." Zhou Zhong asked back.Both Zheng Jing and Zhang Kuang's expressions changed, but in the end Zhang Kuang still defended himself, "Wenda, you are a scholar, how can you be confused with those Japanese and Koreans, they are all vulgar people, Naturally, I don’t know what benevolence and righteousness are, but that’s why you should use benevolence and righteousness to influence you, so as to reveal our Chinese style of conquering people with virtue, instead of using violence to control violence like you!”

Perhaps in the eyes of later generations, what Zhang Kuang said is simply nonsense, but in the eyes of scholars in the Ming Dynasty, it is very natural. At the core of the inner kings, they can impose cruel punishments on the domestic people, but they are very generous to the outsiders, showing their benevolence and righteousness everywhere, but they don't know that their benevolence and righteousness are fundamentally weak in the eyes of the outsiders.

But Zhou Zhong was not stupid enough to argue with Zhang Kuang and Zheng Jing about the right and wrong of this kind of "benevolence and righteousness", because he knew that with the little things in his stomach, he couldn't compare with these two Ming scholars, so he thought Liao thought and said, "Brother Fang, I really don't agree with your understanding of benevolence and righteousness, but let's put this question aside for now. Let's discuss the facts. Let me explain to you the deep-seated reason why I use the cruel method of massacre!"

"Hmph, what reason can there be for the massacre? I think you're trying to justify yourself!" Zheng Jing suddenly said with an angry face. He heard that Zhou Zhong was unwilling to discuss the issue of benevolence and righteousness, and thought that Zhou Zhong could not speak for them. , so the topic was changed.

"Brother Minglun, Wenda has always been very measured in his actions. Although the massacre is cruel, he must have his own reasons. What's the matter if we listen to Wenda?" At this moment, Li Zheng finally spoke to help Zhou Zhong. Zheng Jing heard him and glanced at him, and finally sat down and continued to listen to Zhou Zhong's explanation.

At this time, Zhou Zhongchang took a deep breath, and then he explained: "Actually, the first reason why I took Japanese and Korean people as soon as I arrived at Shuangyu Port is that they provoked me and were involved in human trafficking. Of course, there are 500 people in the two chambers of commerce, and it is impossible for everyone to participate in human trafficking, but there is a second reason why I slaughtered everyone regardless, and that is to deter!"

"Shock? Shock who?" Zhang Kuang, Zheng Jing, and Li Zheng asked almost at the same time. Although they had heard a little about Shuangyu Port, they were scholars after all, and they devoted all their energy to their studies. This is because they live on the coast, so they only know a little about the overseas situation. If those scholars are inland, I am afraid that no one will care about anything outside of China.

Seeing that even Zheng Jing and the other three looked confused at this moment, Zhou Zhong couldn't help but smile wryly in his heart, and then explained again: "My dear friends probably haven't been to Shuangyu Port, and I don't know the situation there. I can tell you now. You, there are now more than a thousand Japanese and Korean people there. Take the Japanese as an example. The largest chamber of commerce among them is called the Ashikaga Chamber of Commerce, which is known as one of the four major chambers of commerce in Shuangyu Port. There are 600 people in the chamber of commerce , plus other large and small Japanese chambers of commerce, the number of Japanese in the entire Shuangyu Port has reached 700!"

Zhou Zhong paused for a moment when he said this, and then continued: "Besides, Japan's domestic turmoil is in turmoil, and the big names from all over the country are fighting each other, which makes more and more people in their country venture out to sea to participate in smuggling, so the number of Japanese in Shuangyu Port has been increasing. Growth, and these Japanese people who dare to go to sea are all vicious desperadoes. Although they are few in number, they are rampant in Shuangyu Port, and they have repeatedly robbed the fleets of other chambers of commerce at sea. Hundreds of people died at the hands of the Japanese, if this continues, the entire Shuangyu Port will be reduced to the hands of the Japanese!"

"It turns out that, Wenda, the reason why you slaughtered two foreign chambers of commerce in one go is to deter those Japanese and Koreans from outside, so that they don't dare to do anything wrong again!" At this time, Li Zheng was the first to react, and at the same time The face said in agreement.Zheng Jing and Zhang Kuang didn't expect the situation in Shuangyu Port to be so severe. If it was true what Zhou Zhong said, then what he did was understandable. After all, Shuangyu Port is on the side of the Ming Dynasty. How can those Japanese be allowed to dominate?

Seeing that the faces of Zheng Jing and Zhang Kuang finally softened, Zhou Zhong was delighted. It seemed that his explanation had finally worked, so he tried to explain again: "Brother Minglun You are all my close friends, today I will share my thoughts with you, in fact, after taking over the Chamber of Commerce left by my father, I have seen many problems in the smuggling industry, and at the same time, I have many ideas."

Zhou Zhong paused again when he said this, and then said: "In my opinion, with the relaxation of the sea ban by the imperial court, the development of smuggling is getting faster and faster, which also attracts more and more people to join in. Most of them are Ming people, and there are also Japanese, Korean, Nanyang, and even Frangji people. Whether it is these foreigners or Han people, as long as they dare to participate in smuggling, many of them are lawless. Smuggling is flourishing, and they can profit from it, so they seldom harass the coast of Daming, but if one day the imperial court strengthens the sea ban, these people can no longer profit from smuggling, then guess what will happen next?"

When Zhou Zhong said this, his face became very serious. What he said was all the truth. The reason why the Japanese riots in the Jiajing period came into being was because the imperial court strengthened the sea ban and destroyed smuggling bases such as Shuangyu Port. , which made it impossible for a large number of smugglers to engage in smuggling anymore, so under the pressure of anger and survival, they began to plunder the coastal imperial court of Ming Dynasty. Some of them were former Ming smugglers.

Zheng Jing and the others were all shocked when they heard Zhou Zhong's last rhetorical question. They were all outstanding talents in Ming Dynasty. Although some views were very pedantic, they were not stupid. Zheng Jing and the others all thought of the serious consequences that Zhou Zhong said.

"If this is the case, I am afraid that the Japanese pirate rebellion will repeat itself, but this will no longer be pure Japanese pirates. With the participation of those smugglers who are familiar with the coastal areas of Daming, I am afraid that it will be even more difficult for the imperial court to exterminate them!" Thinking for a long time At this moment, Zheng Jing suddenly muttered to himself, and his face became a little paler. (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to vote for recommendations and monthly tickets. Your support is my biggest motivation.)